“We Are Here for Our Students”

Educators cope with abrupt closures, confused students and uncertainty

Photo credit: freestocks/Unsplash

“[The student] had tears streaming down his face. He said he was scared. He had just started to make friends and feared they would all be gone when he came back to school.”

—Shellie Bittner, Irvine Teachers Association

Students and educators have been traumatized
by the impact of COVID-19. Almost all schools in the state have closed, many so
abruptly that educators were unable to say goodbye to their students and
colleagues. Shelter-at-home mandates have meant new and disorienting routines. Teaching
and learning remotely is also new for many and can be challenging. And worry
for friends and family, along with uncertainty about the future — if life will
return to normal and when — is causing enormous stress.

As always, educators have stepped up, brushing aside their own concerns to put on brave faces for students and to continue their mission to provide them the best education and the safest environment possible. Below are snapshots of a few of these educators and how they are dealing with their students’ trauma while embracing a different way of teaching. (For more, and to tell your own story, join CTA’s Facebook group Teaching, Learning and Life During COVID-19.)

Meals and Chromebooks

Shellie Bittner and son

After administrators sent
staff an email that school was closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shellie
Bittner and her team of teachers and instructional assistants worked
frantically, gathering textbooks and resource materials for students to take
home. In the midst of the frenzy, she saw a student crying.

“He had tears streaming
down his face,” recalls the education specialist at Greentree Elementary School,
who works with students with mild to moderate disabilities. “He said he was
scared. He had just started to make friends and feared they would all be gone
when he came back to school.”

Bittner, a member of
Irvine Teachers Association, explained that he and his friends would be safer
at home and reassured him that things would turn out OK. She went outside to supervise
students leaving the campus and saw other students crying.

“I made promises to
these students that I’m not sure I can keep,” says Bittner, “but I didn’t know
what else to do. I broke all the rules and hugged my students. At my school we
were trying very hard to be calm, supportive, reassuring, and display
positivity.”

Bittner has a 6-year-old
son with autism whose school was closed. He is having problems adjusting to a new
routine. She is doing her best to help him stay on track. Meanwhile, she is
trying to figure out how to stay connected remotely with her own students and
create lessons for them, as required by her district. She and her colleagues
are working into the wee hours to manage it all, and her union is negotiating
how teachers can fulfill their contractual obligations from home.

“I’m doing my best to
figure everything out. My district is doing many things that can be celebrated,
such as handing out breakfast and lunch at my Title I school, setting up a
system for students to check out Chromebooks, and facilitating hotspots for
connectivity if that’s an issue.”

She worries about students, especially those whose parents have not responded to emails. She is calling to make sure they are OK. Meanwhile, she transmits happy, positive messages through her school’s Instagram and Facebook pages.

Be kind to others

Luis Alvarez

Seniors at Ánimo Watts College Preparatory Academy, a Green Dot charter school in Los Angeles, are having a difficult time, says Luis Alvarez, who teaches social studies and student leadership classes.

“Seniors are just
devastated at the whole idea of not having a commencement ceremony. Many of
them are unsure of what’s happening with their grades. Many of them need to
bring up their grades to graduate, take AP exams, and deal with college
admissions.”

Alvarez, a member of Asociación
de Maestros Unidos, encourages students with online messages. “I tell them
these are unprecedented times and to keep perspective and take comfort in the
fact that lots of people, including their parents, experienced the Great Recession
and had difficult times and survived them. I tell them their responsibility is to
take care of themselves, their families, and be good stewards by being kind to
others. I remind them that their parents are also stressed out.”

Alvarez’s school moved
spring break up by two weeks in response to the pandemic, and he doubts that
school will resume in April. Alvarez is enjoying spending more time with and
homeschooling his son. He tries to avoid watching the news excessively and tries
to stay positive.

“I was encouraged that Gavin Newsom says ADA funding will be honored and that we will be getting our full salary. I am really impressed at how well our district and union are working together.”

“I’m trying to keep an upbeat demeanor so they don’t see I’m scared or nervous. I’m sending hopeful messages to keep things as normal as possible, while knowing that this situation is completely abnormal.”

—Jessica Pagan, West Sacramento Teachers Association

“I cried and cried”

Mercy Viloria-Garman

Mercy Viloria-Garman teaches at Bill E. Young Jr. Middle School in Calipatria, close to the Mexican border in Imperial County. Her husband is in the Navy, and after her school closed in response to the pandemic, she joined him in Norfolk, Virginia.

Viloria-Garman, president of the Calipatria Unified Teachers Association, knew her school would be closing, but was not allowed to tell students and parents for most of the day.

“I’m printing packets
for them and students are asking me questions and their parents are texting me
and messaging me on Facebook and I couldn’t say anything,” she says. Fifteen
minutes before dismissal, she was given the green light to announce that school
was closing for a few weeks.

“When the governor said
this might go on until fall, I cried and cried.”

She worries about her
students. Most are low-income English learners; many have difficult living
situations, with school being their “safe place.”

For now, she is communicating with parents on the Remind app, trying to set up Zoom meetings with students, and wondering how distance learning might happen, because many parents don’t have computers at home. Most have smartphones, but it’s difficult to access Google Classroom on those devices. She hopes her district will allow families to check out Chromebooks from schools, but there are not enough for every student in her district, and seniors in high school will have first priority.

As normal as possible

Jessica Pagan

Jessica Pagan never got
to say goodbye. After her students went home on a Friday night, staff received
an email that nobody would be reporting to school on Monday.

“It was very abrupt, and
it’s very hard to know there are no timelines as to when we’ll be back in the
classroom or whether I will be able to finish out the school year with my
students.”

She sends her first
graders at Bridgeway Island Elementary School daily recordings of herself
reading stories to them on ClassTag, an app that can reach parents on any
device.

“I’m trying to keep an
upbeat demeanor so they don’t see I’m scared or nervous,” says Pagan, a member
of West Sacramento Teachers Association. “I am giving them reminders to read daily,
help around the house, and go outside and play on sunny days. I’m sending
hopeful messages to keep things as normal as possible, while knowing that this
situation is completely abnormal.”

When she heard the
governor say school would likely not resume until fall, it felt like a “punch
to the gut.” She lives alone and is managing her stress and isolation by
walking, cooking and talking with friends. She is on her union’s executive
board and working with her district on how students can be given Chromebooks
and internet access for the distance learning that will be taking place.

ESP on the front lines

Richard Stead

Certificated staff at
Lugonia Elementary School in Redlands were on spring break when they learned
school may not reopen for a long time — possibly until fall. Richard Stead, the
lead custodian, was also on break, but he and his cleaning crew were asked to
return and disinfect the entire campus.

“We are definitely on the front line in the fight against the coronavirus,” says Stead, a member of the Redlands Education Support Professionals Association. “Custodians are very important to the functioning and safety of our schools.”

“We were asked to walk into every room and
spray down every desk, chair, sink, door frame, door handle, drinking fountain,
handrail in hallways, and every common area where people congregate. We
sanitized all of the restrooms and even the gates and exterior gates and locks
that people had touched.”

Now the district can
serve meals to students who rely on the school’s free breakfast and lunch
program to meet their nutritional needs. Cafeteria workers prepare meals that
can be dispensed through car windows or walk-up. And when food is being
prepared, there’s usually a mess, so custodians will provide cleanup as needed.

Stead is coping well. He
says CTA’s Facebook page about the coronavirus is helping.

“What CTA is doing to
keep constant communication with members through these difficult times with
social media is awesome. It’s so much easier to get through this when you feel
connectivity and community rather than isolation.”

“We’re resilient. We’re passionate. We’re dedicated. We will be here for our students.”

—Minc Robinson Brooker, Monterey Bay Teachers Association

Overrun with emotions

Tanya Hunt

Tanya Hunt, a teacher at
Grant Elementary School in Eureka, is “heartbroken” to think this could be the
end of face-to-face learning for the school year. She found out on a Sunday
that schools were closing in Humboldt County. She went into her empty classroom
the next day to retrieve belongings, and became “overrun” with emotions as she stared
at empty desks, thinking of the class projects and a field trip to the symphony
she had planned. She put together homework packets quickly and waved at
students while parents drove by to pick them up.

Hunt lives with her
sister and co-parents three nieces. When her sister goes to work in an office
that tests for COVID-19, she is in charge of the girls at home. She makes sure
they do exercise and schoolwork. Recently they made homemade ice cream and
considered that a culinary class.

Now she is connecting
with her students via ClassDojo and Google Classroom. Students send messages that
they miss her. She sends math assignments online, but students are not being
mandated to do them, and she is not mandated to grade them. But that could change,
of course, says the Eureka Teachers Association member.

Checking in on new teachers

Minc Robinson Brooker

Minc
Robinson Brooker, an education specialist who teaches social studies to
students with mild to moderate disabilities at Seaside High School on the
Monterey Peninsula, texts and emails students and parents. She
communicates with students on Google Hangout to see how they are coping.

Exuding
reassurance comes naturally to Brooker, the secretary-treasurer of the Monterey
Bay Teachers Association (MBTA). In recent years, she has faced serious health
problems, including recovering from a stroke, and can’t afford to get stressed
out by things beyond her control. She is encouraging others to do the same.

“I
have had a couple of seniors who are very, very concerned and have reached out
to me. They said they just wanted to cry. I let them know how much I care about
them, that I am here for them, and that we’ll get through this together. One
student asked if I would still be willing to teach and instruct him, and I said
yes. Then he felt less stressed and anxious.”

Brooker,
along with her union colleagues, is also checking in with teachers, especially
new teachers. “Some may be a bit more overwhelmed with this. It’s already been
a challenging year for many, so I am connecting with them to let them know I’m
here for them and the union is here for them.”

MBTA
is keeping members up to date through emails and Facebook posts regarding
negotiations about working from home and what distance learning may look like.

“Our
union is working on an MOU [memorandum of understanding] in tandem with the
school district and California School Employees Association to make sure the
needs of our students will be met — by ensuring teachers are sufficiently
supported and prepared to help meet their needs. It’s a work in progress.”

Teachers
are up to the challenge of helping their students under adverse conditions —
even during a pandemic when Californians are mandated to “shelter in place” and
stay home, says Brooker.

“We’re resilient. We’re passionate. We’re dedicated. We will be here for our students.”

Post navigation

About

CTA’s California Educator magazine is an award-winning bimonthly publication that keeps you informed about issues and trends in education, teaching, student learning, legislation and policy, and local and state association activities and accomplishments.